Sunday, December 18, 2005

Reporting from outside the US mainstream media focus on Iraq

Some of Allawi's campaign posters show himself and Safiya Al-Suhail. I can only guess Safiya being used in his campaign posters is meant as a gesture to Iraqi women who have felt more oppressed this year than ever. The problem is that if there's one woman Iraqi females can't relate to- it's Safiya Suhail. She's the daughter of some tribal leader who was assassinated abroad in the eighties or seventies- I'm not sure. She was raised in Lebanon and when she's on TV she comes across as arrogant, huffy and awkward with her Iraqi accent tainted with the Lebanese dialect.It's a poster war. One day, you see the posters of Allawi, featuring Safiya Suhail, the next day, Allawi's big face is covered with pictures of Hakim and Sistani. Allawi's supporters have been complaining that Hakim’s supporters were sabotaging campaign posters. [. . .]Allawi is still an American puppet. His campaign posters, and the horrors of the last year, haven't changed that. People haven't forgotten his culpability in the whole Fallujah debacle. For some Iraqis, however, he's preferable to Hakim and Ja'affari after a year of detentions, abductions, assassinations and secret torture prisons.There's a saying in Iraq which people are using right and left lately, and that I've used before in the blog, "Ili ishuf il mout, yirdha bil iskhuna." He who sees death, is content with a fever. Allawi et al. seem to be the fever these days…

Bully Boy tried to spin tonight. Here's reality for American troops on the ground. Fatalities for the month? 42 (in eighteen days). Total since the invasion? 2155. Total of Iraqi fatalities? Unknown but the press has accepted the 30,000 figure now that the Bully Boy's used it.

The image of the US in tsunami-hit parts of Asia may have enjoyed a boost thanks to its aid donations, but its invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, along with its pro-Israeli stance, continue to incense Muslims across the region."I don't like the leader of the American people. I don't mind the people, I just don't like their leader," Yan, a 35-year-old Acehnese dried fish trader who bears deep scars on each arm from injuries sustained in the tsunami, told Agence France-Presse (AFP)."We saw how the US is an arrogant nation. They think they are a superpower and the international police, that they rule everything," added the merchant, who lost his parents, grandparents and three brothers in the catastrophe."We don't hate the people -- we just don't understand the way the American government thinks."A recent Gallup poll, conducted in 10 nations that comprise 80 percent of the world's Muslim population, found that the majority of them strongly doubt the US is trying to establish democracy in the Middle East and many think the Iraq war has done more harm than good.A similar poll released on December 1 showed that most Arabs doubted that spreading democracy was the real US objective.Oil, protecting Israel, dominating the region and weakening the Muslim world were seen as US goals, according to the survey, which included interviews with 800 people in each of Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates.

Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said it would take some years for the United States to withdraw its troops from Iraq although the pullout could start in 2006."So one way or the other, I think a draw down will begin in 2006, but essentially just to walk away, to say that we're taking all of our troops out as fast as we can would be a tragic mistake. It's going to be years," Powell said in an interview with the BBC World TV Channel on Sunday.

Susanne Osthoff, the German woman taken hostage in Iraq, has been freed, Germany's foreign minister says.Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, did not say how she was freed."I am glad to be able to announce to you ... that Mrs Susanne Osthoff is no longer in the hands of the kidnappers," he said on Sunday. "As of today, she is in the safety of the German Embassy in Baghdad."Steinmeier added: "Our impression after talking to her is that she is in good physical condition."

One week after they were threatened with death, there was no word Saturday on the fate of two Canadians being held hostage in Iraq.A week ago, a group called the Swords of Righteousness Brigades threatened to kill James Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden, along with a Briton and an American if U.S. and Iraqi authorities didn't release all Iraqi prisoners.In Toronto on Saturday, members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, waiting for news about their friends, tried to cope with the fact there's been no word on their fate."We are very concerned about our four colleagues and are working for their return," said Sheila Provencher, 33, a full-time Iraq Team member currently working out of Amman, Jordan.In a news release Saturday night, the Christian Peacemaker Team in Iraq asked its supporters to contact President George W. Bush and ask him to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.

US television network ABC News will appeal a ruling by a British employment panel that found the it unfairly dismissed a London-based freelancer because he refused an assignment to Iraq.Richard Gizbert, a long-time war correspondent, claimed he had been sacked because he refused an assignment to Iraq.The 48-year-old Canadian had covered wars in Bosnia, Somalia and Chechnya for the network beginning in the early 1990s, but he did not want to after he had children.Last year, the network declined to renew his contract. ABC News says it made the decision for strictly financial reasons and not for his refusal.The panel disagreed, saying that ABC News' testimony during the case was inconsistent.Mr Gizbert is seeking $US4 million in damages.

A gay couple due to marry in one of Britain's first civil partnership ceremonies have received death threats claiming to be from British soldiers in Iraq.Police are investigating the claim after a letter was sent to Gino Meriano days before the law changed to allow same-sex partners similar legal rights to married couples.The message was written on official British Army notepaper and claimed to have been sent by members of a battalion currently serving in Iraq.It threatened to "exterminate" Mr Meriano and his partner of seven years, Mike Ullett, if they went ahead with plans to take part in one of the first civil partnership ceremonies to be held tomorrow.

Bulgaria started withdrawing its 400-strong battalion and will transfer its military responsibilities in the city of Diwaniya to government forces. The Bulgarian defence ministry said that "with the elections conducted, Bulgaria’s infantry battalion has concluded successfully its mission in Iraq."

About Me

We do not open attachments. Stop e-mailing them. Threats and abusive e-mail are not covered by any privacy rule. This isn't to the reporters at a certain paper (keep 'em coming, they are funny). This is for the likes of failed comics who think they can threaten via e-mails and then whine, "E-mails are supposed to be private." E-mail threats will be turned over to the FBI and they will be noted here with the names and anything I feel like quoting.
This also applies to anyone writing to complain about a friend of mine. That's not why the public account exists.